The interesting thing to me--in NYC, which has the most comprehensive mass transit system in the country, people don't like to use it. So why the heck do the hippie-dippies think we should embrace it in flyover country, where we're more spread out, the bus takes four times as long, and the light rail won't go anywhere useful?

(Despite the best efforts of the cat to annoy me back to health, I'm still a fevered snot bomb. It's so boring.)

Sunday, March 30, 2008

You've heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world.

Fools.

The Earth is built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily.

Even al-Gore, with his massive "carbon buttprint", can't save or destroy the Earth. I find this reassuring.

I will say that lying on the couch, half-dozing, listening to Bob Uecker is a pleasure. Slightly less of a pleasure than eating bratwurst with Special Stadium Sauce and seeing the game live, but except for the dripping and the aching I enjoyed my afternoon.

Anyway. Turning out the lights for an hour--an hour--on a Saturday night is a joke. Try turning out the lights at 5 p.m. on a Tuesday near a solstice, see how much work gets done. Turn out the lights for 24 hours, but authorize the police overtime first.

Hell, if you don't like owning appliances and using heat and fans and lightbulbs in the evening, just don't do it. No one's making you live in comfort kings and queens couldn't buy even 200 years ago. But don't you DARE tell me I can't.

(I especially love 250W bulbs. I have some lamps rated for 300W, but the largest bulbs I can find around here are 250W. My mother's family starts to lose their vision around age 70 and close sewing with insufficient light HURTS. Sue me.)

I've started asking people who go off about "carbon emissions" and "destroying the planet" why they haven't killed themselves yet if that's what they really believe (and at work, I ask them why they don't live within walking distance of work--sure, there's new bullet holes in the front windows this week, but what sacrifice is too great to save the planet??). I recommend it; you don't ever have to participate in a conversation about the lie of Anthropogenic Global Warming with that person again.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Glenn Reynolds had a post today with video of cupcake cars. "Sprinkles" took me to an X-Files Expo on Mare Island in 1998. We don't talk much since our lives have diverged (he visited me in Iowa in 2000 and was permanently scarred by a tractor pull on the TV in the bar--the only bar--in the backwater town where my sister still lives), but I covet the cupcake car. He also has a self-propelled couch.

And my friend Greg, a roofer in North Carolina, was on top of Bob McKillop's house today. I realize this won't win me any friends around here this week. :) He told me the whole campus was deserted.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

There's an irony in the belief that Americans should be free to decide whether or not to kill their babies but should not be free to choose a lightbulb that won't damage future babies in utero. Disclaimer: my personal motivation for the legalization of incandescent bulbs is migraines...maybe liberals just like killing and crippling people (for the children, heh)?

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

...in Ohio, it's established law; to vote in the primary, you have to sign an affidavit pledging loyalty to the principles of the Democratic party. One caller told Rush of getting a big laugh at the polling place when he asked, "What principles?"

This is so easy I can't believe Rush and his callers missed it! One of the principles of the Democratic party is winning through fraud, lies, crime, more fraud, and generally playing dirty. Any Republican or independent who registers with the DNC for Operation Chaos is dutifully upholding this sacred principle!!

Foo Fighters, "Best of You." Embedding disabled by request (*scoff*). And neither Prince nor the NFL will make available to me a copy of His Petite Purpleness covering the song in the orange rain of Super Bowl XLI. Fools! I would have given you money!!

New Order, "Regret":

The Highwaymen, "Highwayman":

On the "related" sidebar of the Highwayman video are additional clips of the foursome covering assorted signature songs. I know what I'm doing tonight.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

I was born with a human body, but I have decided that I self-identify as a cat. I will take a cat name and demand to be treated as a cat.

I'm not going to use the litter box or go Outside naked, but I will wear a prosthetic tail, nap all day, enjoy a little weed, and claw at anyone who suggests I'm deluded. Oh, and I'm keeping the opposable thumbs. But you call me Cuddles! And stop laughing, you right-wing oppressors! It's my right! I was born with the wrong body! *hiss*

*scritch* I should probably spend more time with bipedal mammals than I have been lately.

Apparently through showing the rest of us that black men aren't all gangsta thugs with tattoos and a ho in every city on the circuit. Which I already knew, possibly because I haven't watched the NBA since that farce of a Game 6 in LA in 2000.

Maybe if they played basketball again, that would increase interest in the league among people who aren't interested in an urban-approved version of professional wrestling. But I don't envision Obama sitting in the Oval Office diagraming plays or overseeing free throw practice (but can I see him calling up Ahmadinejad and inviting him over to play HORSE on a special shortened hoop, heh).

Monday, March 24, 2008

That's going to be one confused kid when they show The Movie in 4th grade. If you're pregnant, you're not a man. I don't care what you have removed, what you call yourself, or what sort of prosthesis you're packing in your drawers (you'll have to trust me on that one, I fear Google)--men don't get pregnant. Not even transmen.

Most of my annoyance probably stems from years and years of women insisting I'm not a Real Woman because I'm decent at math, loathe shoe shopping, and never had babies. But I'm not a man and I've never wanted to be one; I just want to be accepted as I am and wear comfortable shoes.

Meanwhile, here's a man who is more of a Real Woman than I am. Mmmmrph. Please God, don't let my mother see this in the news.

I'm kind of bummed by the fat-acceptance movement; non-Marxist, non-feminists are distinctly unwelcome, no matter how much we disapprove of judging people by their appearance and assuming all fat people are lazy pigs.

I always feel weak when I read about people who face torture and death for converting to Christianity. The worst thing that happens when I admit to believing in Jesus is name-calling and ostracization (from people who refuse to consider Fred Phelps doesn't speak for all Christians and all Christians don't dream of uniting the planet in a Grand Fundamentalist Caliphate, so it doesn't hurt much to be uninvited to their parties, heh).

Allam also explained his decision to entitle a recent book "Viva Israel" or "Long Live Israel," saying he wrote it after he received death threats from Hamas.

"Having been condemned to death, I have reflected a long time on the value of life. And I discovered that behind the origin of the ideology of hatred, violence and death is the discrimination against Israel. Everyone has the right to exist except for the Jewish state and its inhabitants," he said. "Today, Israel is the paradigm of the right to life."

Good thing he already has bodyguards. He doesn't just have to worry about radical Islam, he has to worry about the European left, too.

I'd file "measles party" under "child abuse" but I just press buttons for a living.

OTOH, if their sons contract mumps as adults, these women--there are no fathers in the article--may have removed themselves from the gene pool. (One of my friends in Iowa caught the mumps in that epidemic--not a college student, just had the misfortune to sit in a waiting room with an infected individual while his immune system was compromised by leukemia. He's fine now, but apparently orchitis is unpleasant, and I'm waiting for the phone call where he and his wife are devestated by sperm count...)

Some of the shallower potholes provided excellent traction on my unplowed (and thus unsalted) commute home, the dead dog in the middle of the road (well...what's left of him after ten days, poor little guy) is covered and will get pushed to the side, and I even had the delicious thrill of steering the Buick around a Prius that failed to get traction in an intersection. ;)

The only part that annoys me is all the whining and crying about "but it's not supposed to snow." Pffft. I have dozens fond memories of snow in the Midwest in "spring" on Easter, after Easter, in April, during spring break, after spring break.... I have beautiful pictures--on film--of snow covering the daffodils at Iowa State during Veishea. My family moved to my hometown the April I was 7--I went to school for two days then had two days off because of snow (I thought we'd finally moved to Valhalla, only to have my poor little spirit crushed the next week when I had to go five days in a row).

Are Gov. Jim Doyle and state Sen. Judy Robson (D-Beloit) in favor of voter fraud? Yes, that's the only conclusion you can reach. For one thing, they're chief obstructionists to the very simple solution of requiring a photo ID to vote.

I can already imagine what this man is finding in his inbox this morning.

You need a photo ID to fly, drive, bank or rent. We require people to show ID to use city dumps. I have never heard anyone object to that. So it's more important to make sure Greenfield's leaves don't go to West Allis than keeping elections clean?

I think he gravely misunderestimates how much some people want to control other people's garbage; people have been stabbed to death by roommates for putting their empties in the regular trash. Meanwhile, the TSA will accept ID issued by foreign governments and non-citizens can open bank accounts with or without foreign-issued ID (*cough* Bank of America)--I don't just want photo ID at the polls, I want a specific "Hi, I'm an actual alive U.S. Citizen over the age of 18" ID. With thumbprints, so no one can fill out a ballot in their dead grandmother's precinct.

We've still got the college kids voting once on campus and once at home, but baby steps...

Of course, given that WI doesn't open its licensing stations on Saturdays, the people inconvenienced the most are not the retired or the never-employed, they're white collar workers, who have to take time off of work to obtain/renew ID to vote. My Iowa license was acceptable on the I-9 I filled out my first day here, but it better not be acceptable ID for voting in WI elections, or what's to stop the busloads of FIBs?

Maybe they can scan the RFID chip on my passport (why yes, I will be wrapping it in aluminum foil when I'm not presenting it to customs or the TSA...). I was able to file the paperwork for that on a Saturday. :)

Shawn Huff (Helsinki, Finland/Makelanrinne) scored the eventual game-winning basket with 2:45 to play and Valparaiso held Washington scoreless the rest of the way as the Crusaders earned a thrilling 72-71 victory over the Huskies in opening round action of the College Basketball Invitational Wednesday evening in Seattle, Wash. Valpo advances to the quarterfinals of the inaugural CBI and will face Houston on Monday.

The win was the first by the Crusaders in postseason play since the 1997-98 squad advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. In addition, it is Valpo’s first-ever victory over a current Pac-10 school.

For the past 15 years or so, I've been told very earnestly by Homosexual-Americans that Ronald Reagan created AIDS to kill all the *insert slur for Homosexual-Americans here*

But this week, it's been revealed by an advisor to a leading candidate for POTUS that "the government" created AIDS (looking at the timeline, it would be the Carter admin, wouldn't it?) to kill all the *insert slur for blacks here*

If that's not what you MEANT to say, perhaps you should reconsider your choice of medium.

(I've been wondering for awhile if it's possible to apply Alinsky's Rules for Radicals to conservatism. But it's hard to use "Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules" when their rule is pretty much "unconstructive gestures that make us feel warm and fuzzy even as they screw other people over." Plus, we have jobs and lives that make Code Pinko-style organization difficult...but we're smarter, we should be able to figure this out.)

If they'd brought this up several months ago when the idea of auctioning off bits of the Dome was first floated to the public, I'd probably agree. Especially since I didn't realize the city was still paying for the Dome (what did they do with all those fast-food taxes I paid when I lived there??). But reading further...

The law firm asks for its legal fees to be paid from auction proceeds if it wins the lawsuit.

Since they filed suit after the sale has begun (could this invalidate the sales, since advertising that the moneys go to charity but in actuality they'll go to a bunch of lawyers?--hello, fraud charges!), it reads like "ooh! we can get money!" more than any sort of protection of taxpayers.

Plus the sale was approved by the outgoing (D) mayor, and the sole plaintiff is a failed (R) local candidate. Feels like they're trying to use a noble concept they don't actually believe in to cover a shameful money/power play.

Mostly I'm going to be really pissed a) if I don't get my turf plaque after they already charged my credit card and b) the money I was told was going to go to literacy programs and sick kids goes to lawyers, because c) that's such a John Edwards thing to do.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Valpo is in the "College Basketball Invitational," which is apparently a new event this year designed to make kids feel better about not being good enough for the NCAA or the NIT. Like the "alternative prom" at the nursing home, so the ugly girl can wear a dress and watch Lawrence Welk with people who actually went to their HS prom in the 1920s and feel good about doing something "meaningful" instead feeling sad about being ugly. The pity burns worse than the original pain.

I'll enjoy watching Shawn Huff one more time, at least.

I kind of get a kick out of pretending I'm confused over which post-season tournament is being discussed when someone mentions "the" tournament as if women don't exist (ISU women are seeded 7), but other than that I'm not really feeling post-season basketball this year. Maybe Scott Drew will have a good run; I'm pretty apathetic as long as Kansas goes home early.

The part I find most interesting (my eyes skipped right over that huge unbroken block of text) is that she misspelled "Queen Latifah", miscapitalized the title of Obama's book, and "As a legislator Senator Taylor has passionately outreached[sic] to children." I'm sure kids today won't notice, since they're never taught any better, but that's not the sort of literate attention to detail I look for in a legislator, much less a lawyer.

(File this under "Radish is a proofreading snob." I got yelled at at work for correcting shoddy grammar/obvious typos in documents...)

My friend who doesn't realize we're too old for MySpace says Taylor likely does not maintain her own page and most celebrities have a staffer to do it. I'll have to think about fraud in the Internet Age for awhile. No one expects authenticity from Hollywood, but local politics feels different.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

on the quilt blogs, which I have been reading for the first time in a week. I don't suppose him throwing his long-time spiritual advisor under a bus when the media became critical of his teachings has anything to do with it. :)

Yes, under a bus--we can add disloyalty to the long list of things to find objectionable about Obama. He used the Rev to further his career for 20 years and fired him when he was no longer useful. Reminds me of the Clintons (poor Socks).

Lots of good fabric and thread on the blogs, though. I've been sorting through the fabric I've accumulated since college, getting ready to dump a lot of it on eBay to see if I can recoup pennies on the dollar. Trying not to think "Damn, I could have put a down payment on a house if I hadn't bought all this crap." Wow, I was dumb when I was young. I don't suppose Congress will consider a bailout of over-enthusiastic hobbyists who lose their enthusiasm after dropping thousands of dollars on supplies?

"We know you loved Brett Favre, but he wasn't happy here. He couldn't stay here," Packers general manager Ted Thompson told hundreds of quiet but tear-streaked Packer fans assembled at the televised Lambeau Field press conference. "And he loved you, too—he loved you very much indeed—but he needed to go someplace where he could run and jump and throw his favorite football around. And he couldn't do that here anymore."

"So we took Brett out behind the Don Hutson practice facility last night, and we… Coach McCarthy and I, we. . . We gave him one last hug, and we said goodbye to him, and Brett went away forever," Thompson said, his voice breaking several times. "Those loud banging noises you heard were probably the truck backfiring. He went to the farm in a truck, you know.". . ."Don't be sad," Packer head coach Mike McCarthy told fans, many of whom began crying audibly, shaking their heads, or turning away at the news. "You should be happy for Brett. He is in a much better place now. He has many of your other favorite Packers, really great Packers like Reggie White and Ray Nitschke and Max McGee, to keep him company. And he even has a coach—Vince Lombardi is on that farm, too."

Friday, March 14, 2008

Last night, the Minnesota Senate Judiciary Committee voted against consent rights (ownership) of infant blood and DNA, reported Twila Brase, RN, President of the Citizens' Council on Health Care. That means DNA material on children can be stored and used by the government or third parties without the consent of parents. The bill (SF 3138) now goes to the Senate for a full vote.....As reported last year, the CCHC had discovered that for ten years, the Minnesota Department of Health had been illegally collecting DNA material on at least 780,000 babies which it was storing indefinitely, and has already given away the material on more than 41,000 babies for genetic research, all without the knowledge or consent of parents. Since then, the CCHC has been working for informed consent and arguing that the state cannot take or use genetic material without parents’ consent. The CCHC has cautioned that the state’s genetic database will soon be linked electronically to its medical database, with a permanent impact on patient records and genetic profiling that could be used against people by insurers or employers.

Michael Critchton has just joined Tom Clancy on the list of "people whose fiction turns out to be documentary."

I don't know enough about babies to comment on newborn screenings, but I do know no one should be collecting or doing any sort of research on anyone's tissues without their explicit informed consent (for babies, that would be their parents' consent). And under no circumstances should any medical records be released to businesses or employers without explicit consent. Good grief.

UPDATE: I think I figured out why MN skipped "parental consent for DNA collection/research on babies." When you have more than two people involved in conception/pregnancy/parenting, it's a legal laocoon. Adopted children--the legal parents have no genetic material in the baby. They can sign off without fear of the government database affecting their future; the biological parents cannot (you'd think a parent would be concerned about the effect on the child's future, but anyone who's read a newspaper knows you can't count on that). And then there's all the unknown fathers...you'd never be able to get consent from both biological parents from those women who have Montel Williams perform three, four, ten paternity tests. That's a lot of time/money/hassle; far, far easier to just seize every baby's tissues without telling anyone they're being used for anything other than the common newborn disease screenings.

So don't donate sperm or eggs in MN, either, if you're concerned about your DNA becoming property of the state without your consent.

It's absurd to talk about Spitzer's problem being "hypocrisy" -- as if everything would be fine if only he had previously advocated legalized prostitution.

Or money laundering. Or not destroying people's lives over perceived financial malfeasance. Heh.™

It's absurd to talk about "alpha males" and political power -- an alpha male does not bring his family shame and disaster. Who was more alpha than Ronald Reagan? Think he ever had a "whore problem"? This is more like a dog who wee-wees on your leg.

I'm sure he left a few broken hearts in Des Moines, but that's altogether different.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, she was one of the highest-billing associates at the incredibly successful mergers and acquisitions law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Later, she went to the office of the general counsel of Chase bank. But sometime in the 1990s, like many of the other women of her class, she decided to "opt out," to quit her job, in her words, as her husband began his electoral career to devote herself to raising their three daughters and to her philanthropies. She helped start the Children to Children Foundation, which teaches rich children social responsibility for the poor.

Yeah, that sounds like a woman who'll never be able to land a paid straight job again, 'cept maybe at a sweatshop or mopping floors. *rolls eyes*

And even if the marriage does not break up, women's decisions to make their social position completely dependent on the ambition, discipline, judgment, and steadiness of another human being is not only an act of extreme self-abnegation, it risks the very dramatic fall we have just witnessed in the Spitzer matter. Does anyone think that even as well-heeled a divorcée as Mrs. Spitzer would be the same force in philanthropic Upper East Side circles as the governor's wife?

Not only does she contradict herself--marriage both increases and decreases her social status?--nobody anywhere in the world, not even NYC, would afford barren spinster Silda Wall the same social status as the former Silda Spitzer, no matter how many mergers and acquisitions she billed.

Sorry, feminists, the world you think we should live in does not and never will exist. Believe me, I'm on the bottom end of it.

Mostly this week I'm intrigued by this whole idea of women being paid for something I can hardly give away. :P

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

If I wasn't wasting all my spare income on art and education and crap like that, I'd be all over this. It's an artifact used during the Colts Super Bowl run! And probably by Jeff George at some point. *snicker* Shouldn't be too hard to turn it into a bubbler for the cat...

Last night some of us went out for a birthday/going-away party. After dinner, we repaired to a neighborhood bar in Bay View with ashtrays on all the tables.

Ten years ago when I'd visit Milwaukee and be dragged to a bar, I'd have to take a shower before going to sleep because my hair would reek of smoke. My eyes would itch. I'd have to leave my winter coat outside to defumigate. Y'all know the drill, the anti-smoking people chant it regularly (does anyone believe they actually go out to bars?). Strangely, instead of lobbying the government for a ban, I alternated between suggesting we do non-bar things and prophylactic antihistamine for my eyes. Naive, I was. :)

I got home last night, and my hair smelled like...fried foods and oil. There wasn't enough smoke in the bar to cover the smell of the deep fryers in the kitchen. Maybe because it was a Tuesday and the bar wasn't packed; but I've been noticing this phenomenon over the past year. The day after I go out, my winter coat is fine, my eyes are fine...part of it might be the improved air cleaners in most places, but it looks like people just don't smoke as much as they used to.

I maybe shouldn't point this out, lest some nutburger decide establishments with a pool table should not be allowed to sell tasty fried foods alongside the libations.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

No offense, Milwaukee, but I really don't like you this week. Now that the snow is almost gone, I'm staring at three months' worth of broken liquor bottles and used condoms and broken auto parts and (my favorite litter) discarded hair weaves, and it makes me sick and angry that people don't care about where they live. Yeah, I understand you're all poor (and it's my fault because I was born pale), but how much money do you have to make to not smash your empty booze bottles all over the sidewalk, really?

And there's been a little dead dog--black and white, terrier-looking--laying in the middle of N. Teutonia Ave for at least two days. It's the saddest damn thing. Accidents happen, but no one cared about him enough to pick up his body. I thought about getting a shovel and a box to pick him up myself, but I don't know what to do with a dead body in the city (growing up, dead animals got buried in a cornfield). And someone would probably run me over, and no one would care enough to pick up my body.

I don't even like dogs, I have no idea why a little dead lonely dog makes me so upset.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Washington lawmakers have approved a pilot program that will allow beer and wine tasting in 30 grocery stores statewide in an effort to market local products.

The measure now heads to the governor, after passing the Senate 29-17 on Monday. It earlier passed the House.

I'd love something like that. I've been feeling a need for variety lately, but I'm too cheap to buy a six-pack of something I'll end up giving away five bottles, and I haven't had time/weather to go driving around the state looking for beer (as I recall, beer samples came up in the WI Legislature about a year ago and went nowhere...).

The one-year program, strongly supported by the state's microbrewery and wine industries, allows shoppers to sample as much as 4 ounces of beer or wine. Supporters say it allows small wineries or breweries with no marketing budget to get their products out to the public.

Yes. YES!

But opponents contend the program sets a bad example by exposing children to alcohol consumption.

*blink* WHAT?

First off, no offense to the parents who read this, but the existance of your children gives you zero right to limit what I as an adult can do, read, view, or buy. I'm not even going to apologize for holding that view; "everyone has to be regulated so I don't have to raise my own children!" has annoyed me since Dan Coats and the Internet Decency Act. Tell your kid only degenerate slobs drink an ounce of pale ale at the grocery store, if that's what you believe, but don't try to stop anyone else from having a life or a livelihood. ("Alcohol consumption"?? We're not talking about swilling down a case of Natural Light with the intention of getting wasted here, which some kids are forced to witness already and which won't be stopped by a veto here...)

Second, bad example? Tasting in a store that sells the products is a bad example?? May as well cut off the sales altogether, because the adults that taste may take a bottle home. *gasp* The adults who aren't allowed to taste may also take a bottle home. *gasp* But cutting off sales violates my First off. So...

Frankly, I can't think of a much better example of "alcohol is a boring adult activity" than wine tasting. The sheer tedium of the winery at the Amana Colonies when I was 8 or 10 burned itself into my consciousness so deeply I've hardly touched wine since.

Meanwhile children are "exposed to alcohol consumption" every damn day if their parents own a TV, and if they don't, they're going to be exposed to it when they hit jr. high, and by freshman year they're going to have classmates swilling cheap spirits in the parking lot in the mornings. Isn't it better to see that "alcohol consumption" is a boring grown-up thing (or a fascinating journey through flavors and bouquets...for boring grown-ups) than a pre-requisite for fun?

Of course, since I have no spawn, my opinion on everything is null and void. *sniff* Which is also insane, but for another post.

(My grandpa used to let me sip the foam off the top of his PBR can when I was a toddler, and I turned out just---er, nevermind. Not really relevant, since the grocery stores would only be giving samples to adults.)

"Runaway greenhouse theories contradict energy balance equations," Miskolczi states. Just as the theory of relativity sets an upper limit on velocity, his theory sets an upper limit on the greenhouse effect, a limit which prevents it from warming the Earth more than a certain amount.

How did modern researchers make such a mistake? They relied upon equations derived over 80 years ago, equations which left off one term from the final solution.

Miskolczi's story reads like a book. Looking at a series of differential equations for the greenhouse effect, he noticed the solution -- originally done in 1922 by Arthur Milne, but still used by climate researchers today -- ignored boundary conditions by assuming an "infinitely thick" atmosphere. Similar assumptions are common when solving differential equations; they simplify the calculations and often result in a result that still very closely matches reality. But not always.

That I understand. That's a common trick in first-year physics; assume an infinitely long wire, a frictionless pulley, a spherical chicken--you disregard certain parts of reality to better concentrate on what you're supposed to learn. But it's understood that it's not a real-world solution.

The 80 years part, that's astonishing. We were aware of atmosospheric boundaries at least 50 years ago (I'm not up on Tsiolkovsky...note to self).

So Miskolczi re-derived the solution, this time using the proper boundary conditions for an atmosphere that is not infinite. His result included a new term, which acts as a negative feedback to counter the positive forcing. At low levels, the new term means a small difference ... but as greenhouse gases rise, the negative feedback predominates, forcing values back down.

How 'bout them horseapples? :)

NASA refused to release the results. Miskolczi believes their motivation is simple. "Money", he tells DailyTech. Research that contradicts the view of an impending crisis jeopardizes funding, not only for his own atmosphere-monitoring project, but all climate-change research. Currently, funding for climate research tops $5 billion per year.

Color me unsurprised. That's a lot of research jaunts to Alaska/New Zealand/Bali.

And that's sad, because the people who think I should shit outside in a hole, give up my car, and not eat fresh citrus in winter--won't someone think of the planet!!--listen to "NASA scientists."

I have trouble convincing people from the East Coast that the different Midwestern states are NOT THE SAME (you want all the same? Visit New England...), but I've lived in five of them and spent enough time in the others to be very aware of the differences...

Sure, there'll be a few glares and rude stares aimed at the women on the red carpet with their hair and ankles showing, but it's just their culture, which I'm told is better than ours. And once their vests goes off, you'll forget your hurt feelings.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

I was previously unaware of Frontpage Milwaukee, a website by UW-Milwaukee journalism students, but I am now impressed by their willingness to ferret out and publish actual numbers--as far as can be determined, because record-keeping is (intentionally?) lousy--about felonies and recidivism among previously-deported (for their first crime...) illegal aliens in Milwaukee.

I've yet to see this topic, much less with numbers, in the J-S Online.

Kind of too bad they couldn't find any non-Mexican examples. I know they exist; in my younger days I had an acquaintance from Britain who overstayed his visa and lived off welfare in Iowa City until he was convicted of domestic assault. But last I heard he hadn't snuck back in because it's kind of hard to sneak in via airplane, and sneaking in over a remote part of the Canadian border is more work than he's willing to do.

I went to the MSO last night and the Marcus Center is decorated with about a million of 'em. The CFL bulbs just won't look right, not to mention the public health hazard of uncovered mercury bulbs out in the open along the corridors. Damn shame about the ban, because it's a very nice-looking facility. Until 2012.

I'd like to think I support arts/music, but this was my first symphony (there may have been a field trip in middle school, but that doesn't count). Meine Deutschlererin (German teacher) is in the MSO Chorus and hooked me up with a reduced-rate ticket. I'll try almost anything once. Last night was Verdi's Requiem, kind of an operatic funeral mass.

It was a really enjoyable evening. There's no dress code, but the website suggested business casual; I probably should have worn women's shoes (when there's snow on the sidewalks fashion stops at the knees...) but otherwise I don't think I stood out in black pants and a sweater. The staff were very friendly and helpful.

An hour before the performance, one of the choral directors gave a little talk about the history of the piece, and pointed out some things to listen for, which was very helpful.

And the performance was beautiful. The mezzo-soprano's voice was amazing (both the female soloists were large women in beautiful, beautiful dresses). I think I'd heard the trumpet antiphon before--possibly at an Easter service at Valpo--so I got a little sidetracked trying to figure that out. Even though it was in Italian, I was able to follow along in the program, which pleased me.

The music was gorgeous, just gorgeous. It's cliche to say I was moved to tears, but it was a funeral mass, and coincidentally I'd been a little bummed all day by the anniversary of my grandmother's death. But the director said in his pre-performance talk, "if this doesn't make you shiver, have your heart checked."

So. Very enjoyable evening, and I will do it again sometime. Besides the amazingness of the music, I was very impressed by how the organization made it very easy for this white-trash hayseed to access the performance, both physically and intellectually. I don't know enough to evaluate the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra musically, but their willingness to reach out and gently educate people who aren't stereotypical "symphony patrons" is first-rate.

(Note to self: learn to write artistic criticism more interesting that using the word "beautiful" over and over.)

There may have been a good reason to foist jet lag on the entire nation twice a year during WWI, but welcome to the the 21st century, Mr. Garrett. Almost no one's workplace is lit by sunlight; shifts start at appointed hours regardless of what's going on outdoors; in most places grocery stores are open 24 hours a day (I miss that so much).

And you just KNOW Mr. Garrett did this on suggestion from some mouthbreather who thinks New Jersey is going to be underwater in ten years because I've been using incandescent light bulbs while I cook my breakfast. Ironic.

Lopez-Quintero, 45, an illegal immigrant living in Kenosha, faces a mandatory life sentence for first-degree intentional homicide and up to an additional five years for use of a dangerous weapon. Warren said a sentencing date will be set soon.

The defense lawyer will appeal, of course; it's "unfair" that the victim's wife was in the courtroom. Unfair? It was unfair that her husband was killed by a someone who should have been sent home numerous times. But she can't appeal that decision, now, can she?

I wonder what they mean by "computer designers." The reporter probably does, too.

The unemployment rate actually dipped slightly from 4.9 percent to 4.8 percent, as 450,000 people left the labor force for any number of reasons. Economists thought many people probably gave up looking for work.

I also wonder if construction companies report adding/cutting jobs held by illegal workers. I won't feel bad at all if they can't find work as long as they go home.

I don't understand how anyone familiar with simple mathematics can believe there will be jobs created in the areas of vacations, new homes, malls, etc, when people have less money to spend on stuff because they're paying more taxes (Obama's tax hike, Pelosi's gas tax, etc). Apparently they learned nothing from the yacht tax--rich people use more service industries than poor people; hurting the rich people reduces employment opportunities for the unskilled.

Might be fun to watch Barack try to make people work even if no one can pay them. :)

When he was 12, Fielder already was leaving dents on the scale. He weighed close to 200 pounds. He was the fat kid. That's what everyone called him.

So one day, the 12-year-old fat kid took his place in the batter's box at old Tiger Stadium and pulled a pitch into the right-field lower deck. Who's fat now?

"I just thought it was normal," he said of the blast.

When he wasn't chosen until the seventh pick of the 2002 draft (there were continuing concerns about his weight), Fielder never forgot the slights. He's listed at 5-foot-11, about 270 pounds, and had 78 home runs in his past two seasons. What weight problem?

Thursday, March 6, 2008

So today I got an envelope with no markings and a return address of "U.S. Government Official Mail, New Orleans" and the first thing I thought was "Oh shit! WTF do they want with me!?" which I feel is a wholly reasonable reaction to getting any unexpected correspondance from the federal government.

Then I realized my passport was inside. HA! Website said 6-8 weeks, 3 weeks if I gave them a lot of extra money, but it arrived in just under 3. Well done, State Department.

It's one of the slick new electronic-chip ones with a whole bunch of quotations on the pages, many of which are weaselly feel-goodery included because of the ethnicity of the originator (don't you have better things to do, State Department, like background checks or something?). I did like this one:

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. --John F. Kennedy

The answers to America's problems don't rest with the federal government, or any government for that matter. The answers rest with we the people.

Elementary students should have to copy those sentences down in their notebooks every day until they internalize it (if kids were still taught written English or handwriting...nevermind).

During the last 70 years, the only big projects successfully undertaken by the Federal Government were the destruction of most of the major cities of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, and the moon shot. Maybe the interstate highway system, too, except I-294 between Chicago and Indiana. It's always a mess.

Heh. I-80/90 between the I-65 and the Illinois border has been under construction at least since I was a freshman in college. It's entirely possible its completion is a sign of the Apocolypse.

On the other side of the balance sheet are the War on Poverty, War on Drugs, AMTRAC[sic], federal housing projects, Social Security, Medicare, and unless you're just sending a birthday card, the USPS...all the big federal programs have been train wrecks in slow motion. And any politician, from any party, who tells me to hope that change will come through the Federal Government is singing the siren song of Pollyanna expectations that only seduces the sadly dependent.

When I went to the state basketball tournament as a 15-year-old, I wore a T-shirt over a white turtleneck printed with black pandas. I now cringe at my naivete--but even the skanky girls wore shirts in public. It was a dark, repressed age. Like the 60s.

My dad tells my niece to be nice to me, because when she's older and her mother won't let her do something, I will be her best ally. I think he needs to qualify that statement: Summer camp? Expensive toys? Engineering school? All good. Dressing like a two-bit whore in public? I'm siding with her mother until she completes her education. I'd like to think it's because I have her mental and physical well-being at heart, but it's probably because I'm old and bitter.

I don't even know what a "big ballaz" is, nor am I about to Google it.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

people are invited to spend from 10 minutes to 1 hour visualizing President Elect Barack Obama on inaugural day being sworn in as the next President of the United States of America. See him with Michelle by his side and their two beautiful daughters. Hear the crowd. See the flags. Imagine the jubilation around the world!

All I see is a gigantic mushroom cloud where Israel used to be, and Ahmadinejad jumping up and down like Rumplestiltskin.

(Obamamessianism is viral on the quilt blogs again...I just wanted to look at thread. *cry*)

Brett Favre retired today. If Pakistan nukes India or Al Qaeda shoots down Air Force One, it won't be reported in Wisconsin for at least a week. Although if the latter occurs, I do expect to hear the cheering in Madison all the way over here...

Monday, March 3, 2008

So--that makes everything all right then? If he was "so damn drunk" and killed with his vehicle, would that be OK, too? If I was "so damn drunk" and shot someone to death, could I walk away (I already know the answer to that--"yes, but only if I was married to my male victim, and I'd get his estate, too!")? C'mon, sanctuary liberals...you're not on the side of anything good or just here.

I'm not a big fan of bereaved relatives filing big-money lawsuits against people/corporations who weren't involved in their loved one's death, but seeing how the perp had been arrested and released in several states before finally murdering this deputy, I hope Fabiano's family sues every entity they're legally allowed to sue. Not sure citizens can sue the government agencies who let the perp roam free illegally, but they should start with every business who ever employed the guy in violation of the law...

I didn't start reading National Review until about four years ago, I never saw "Firing Line," and I haven't read any of William F. Buckley's books...I came to conservatism through my dad, my grandpa, and a World History professor who was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA (probably not her goal in teaching the freshman class, HA!). So I've really enjoyed seeing the tributes, memories, video clips, etc, that have been posted on the National Review website and all over the intertubes the past week. I've added some books to my queue as well. I've learned a lot about U.S. history that I sure as hell wasn't taught in school...

The thing that really stands out, and from what I read this seems to be fitting, is that every obit, column, article--even from hostile mainstream sources like the AP and the NY Times--uses big, uncommon words. This is the first time I've had to look up a word used by the AP since I was 10 years old (épater, which means "to shock or startle")...after all, their style sheet says to keep it at a sixth-grade level or lower. I've had to look up even more from conservative writers. I've learned more words in the past week than I have since I moved to Milwaukee.

Talking about WFB, Rush Limbaugh said something like (I'm working from memory here) "you know you're not as smart as these people, but you hope by being around them and listening to them you'll become a better person." Totally sums up how I feel about the blogosphere, the pundits, and the writers...I felt pretty dumb after meeting Jonah Goldberg and some UW students at Madison last year, but I also felt energized by hearing the discussion. I hope eventually I'll have something to contribute, but lately it's taking a backseat to my 80 million other interests.

Plus, some of the words are good in Scrabble, and I remember them better if I know the definitions. :) (EPATER* is bad because it's French; EPIGONI is an alternate spelling of EPIGONE, both good.)

Saturday, March 1, 2008

MILWAUKEE—The Milwaukee Bucks home game against the New York Knicks was relegated to the basement of the Bradley Center Tuesday, arena president Steve Costello announced to reporters, saying he was forced to hold the more popular Smucker's Stars On Ice event in the main venue. "Normally only 200 to 300 people are in attendance for most Bucks games, so the basement will provide plenty of room," Costello said, adding that the Bradley Center's basement had a quaint and intimate atmosphere most NBA fans never get a chance to experience. "Every figure-skating event we host sells out, while it costs more for us to keep the lights on during Bucks game than we make off of ticket sales." Costello said that when he created the event schedule for the year, he naturally assumed the Bucks season would either be over by now or that ownership would have moved the team to another city.